H-1B visa scam busted: Two Indian-origin men plead guilty in shocking fraud case

The accused, identified as Sampath Rajidi (51) and Sreedhar Mada (51), were involved in submitting fraudulent H-1B visa petitions.

According to court documents, Rajidi operated two visa services firms — S-Team Software Inc. and Uptrend Technologies LLC. Through these companies, he filed H-1B Specialty Occupation visa petitions to bring foreign workers to the United States for temporary employment.

Mada served as Chief Information Officer at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources in Davis. While he held supervisory authority, he was not authorised to independently hire H-1B workers for his department.

Between June 2020 and January 2023, Rajidi and Mada conspired to submit fraudulent H-1B visa petitions for multiple beneficiaries. In these filings, Rajidi falsely claimed that the applicants would be employed in roles at the University of California.

Mada allegedly used his position and credibility as CIO of UCANR to support these claims, giving the impression that the beneficiaries would work on legitimate university projects.

However, investigators found that the positions listed in the petitions did not exist. Instead, the beneficiaries were marketed to other clients after securing H-1B visas based on the false information.

Authorities said the defendants knowingly submitted misleading details that were material to decisions made by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, thereby gaining an unfair advantage over other firms and reducing the number of visas available to legitimate applicants.

The case is being investigated by multiple agencies, including the Diplomatic Security Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate. Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Harman is prosecuting the case.

The two are scheduled to be sentenced by Troy L. Nunley on July 30, 2026. They each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.